December 8, 2025 • 44 mins
We trace how private equity now shapes vet care, why costs keep rising, and how to protect your pet with raw nutrition, informed consent, and better questions. Practical tips reveal what to remove from the bowl, how to spot upsells, and where to find independent help.
• pool safety with step training for dogs
• why raw feeding prevents chronic inflammatory issues
• foods to avoid for carnivores including pumpkin daily, potatoes, rice, beans, tuna
• free raw diet consults and building a species-appropriate plan
• consolidation of vet clinics by private equity and price inflation
• standardized protocols that prioritize profit over health
• ER cost realities and lack of patient choice
• finding independent vets and verifying ownership
• informed consent and tests that change treatment
• telemedicine pitfalls with drug-first platforms
• fraud, rising prices, and voting with your wallet
• how to set boundaries and advocate for your pet
Find out how you can start your dog on the road to health and longevity. Go to raw dogfoodandcompany.com, where friends don’t let friends feed kibble, and where your pets health is our business.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Oh, snaps, snaps.
Well, hello, raw feeders.
I'm Dee Dee Mercer Moffat, CEOof a raw dog food and company.
Where your pet's health is ourbusiness, and we're friends like
my friend, Dr.
Judy Jasik.
Oh, she didn't let friends feedkibble or crappy raw diets
either.
How are you this morning, Dr.
Jasik?
Good.
A little chilly, chilly anddamp.
SPEAKER_00 (00:20):
It's chilly and damp here.
That's like cold rain.
It's like mid-30s and rainy.
unknown (00:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:25):
So it's kind of winter in Tennessee, but it's
okay.
The winter doesn't last verylong here.
So we can we can put we finallygot enough boxes unpacked that
we could actually pull our carsin the garage.
So because you get some icehere, you know, it drops just
below freezing and everythinggets icy.
So it'd be really nice to haveto scrape windshields.
So that's that's gonna feelpretty luxurious.
We haven't had a uh like anactual garage since we left
(00:47):
Colorado.
We had a carport in our lastplace, which was nice.
I mean, that helps, you know.
Um, but it wasn't attached tothe house, so you still had to
like, you know, walk in the rainand stuff to get to it.
So we're we're moving, we'removing on up now.
SPEAKER_02 (01:00):
So yesterday, um, Lazie did a cold plunge and then
she she didn't hear pool.
She didn't mean yeah, it was soit was that Rick was not happy
about it, but I mean, look, dogsknow how to swim.
But she was she was barking atthe dog on the other side of us,
and and she she backed up andjust fell right in the pool.
(01:22):
And her nails came up.
She was like, I think she couldhave pulled herself all the way
up, but I just grabbed her bythe scruff of the neck and
pulled her out.
And so like okay, she could haveswum.
Yeah, so she was just happenedto be on the one side that there
wasn't a step, right?
And so my brother said, Look,he's been training dogs forever
for she's hunting dogs, right?
(01:43):
Yeah, and so he's like, Here'swhat you do you you just carry
her out to the pool, have herstay where the steps are, and
put her in the pool, and then hecalls her over to the step.
And he said, You do that twice,she will never forget where the
steps are.
Oh, should be a smart idea.
Yeah, he's like, dogs are supersmart.
He said, Unlike people, theydon't make the same mistake
(02:03):
twice, typically.
I said, twice.
That's all you make a mistake,the same mistake over and ever.
I tend to have made it quite afew times.
The same way, it can be a slowlearner sometimes.
Yeah.
Hey, speaking of mistakes, youknow, listen, home diets can be
a huge mistake, Dr.
JC.
(02:24):
And I'll tell you another thingthat can be a huge mistake are
allergy tests.
We've talked a lot about those.
Um, we really do want toencourage our listeners that
number one, not to do an allergytest.
I mean, unless you have doneeverything possible.
And what do we mean byeverything possible?
We mean stop putting toxins inyour dog's body, look at a
(02:46):
homeopathic solution, and stopputting um things that a dog or
a cat doesn't need.
And what some of those thingsare for certain are they don't
need pumpkin every day for sure.
It's high in sugar.
They definitely don't needpotatoes of any sort.
They don't need sweet or white,okay, or yammies or anything
(03:09):
like that.
And they don't need rice, guys,and they don't need tuna.
Okay.
So I was just looking atsomebody's diet today that they
were doing for their dog.
And I hate to offend people.
So I just kind of say, listen,this is my recommendation based
on years and years ofnutritional consults and what we
(03:30):
see and what we know.
Um, but but definitely you gotto take out beans and green
beans.
I mean, if you want to put a fewin there, okay.
But I just don't see beans as aprotein source a good option for
carnivore, guys.
And certainly tuna, tuna, highin heavy metals.
So um we can help you with thediet.
(03:52):
That's what we do here at RawDog Food and Company.
Remember, Brian is waiting foryou patiently.
It's just sign up and he's gonnahelp you.
Okay.
And Brian loves this stuff.
So he even though it says 20minutes, it'll probably be more
like 60.
Okay.
It's totally free.
We'll get you on a good diet.
Um, on that note, Dr.
Jasak, we definitely are seeingmassive, massive fraud in the
(04:17):
world.
We'll come back to that in asecond.
But the and and how it affectsyour pricing in the in the raw,
in the pure raw, in the goodfood for your animals.
Um, but then another place thatwe really you know talk about a
lot, Dr.
Jason, are these prices in theveterinary clinic.
So if if you think you can'tafford a raw diet, I can assure
(04:41):
you you cannot afford a sick dogto go into the veterinary world.
Dr.
Jasak, why why are the prices soastronomical for going into the
vet's office?
SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
Because the the clinics, most of them are
corporate or good number.
I bet more than half.
I don't know the exactpercentage, but I would bet
these days more than half arebought up by these big
corporations, which are run bythese big private equity
companies, and they're onlyinterested in one thing.
And that's the bottom line.
Because the prices in recentyears, they've gone up by
(05:15):
multiples.
I mean like tripled.
And it doesn't cost them, itdoes not cost them that much
more to do these procedures.
I see some of these prices,surgeries that I used to do, and
they're like 10 times what Iused to charge.
Like, okay, everything goes upin price.
I can understand that, but goingup by multiples, that's just
(05:36):
greed, it pure and simple.
And as you know, you can takeyour pet into the ER, and I hear
this all the time.
You go in the ER for anything,five to ten grand.
You can almost count onsomething like if they,
especially if they have to stayor they do testing, it's
ridiculously expensive.
So people don't have insurance.
(05:58):
Um, you know, you better, youknow, have some money, have some
money socked away.
And they also don't give peoplechoices.
They don't say, well, this isthe most expensive approach, we
can do this, but we could alsodo this approach.
It's the most expensive approachor euthanasia.
Those are your choices.
So that's why doing what keepsyour pet healthiest at home and
(06:21):
understanding how to keep yourpet healthy is so important
because you gotta stay out ofthe world of veterinary
medicine.
That's what I tell people.
Don't take your pet in unlessit's obviously hurt or bleeding,
broke a leg, or you know,seriously ill.
Um, but yeah, like feeding rawis like an insurance policy,
right?
You absolutely it is.
(06:42):
Feed them raw, you invest alittle more.
It's like, you know, you payinsurance on your home, or if
you're renting, you pay renters'insurance so that if something
happens, you're covered.
But to me, it's like you'repreventing so many illnesses
from happening, like GI issuesand the itchy skin and uh any
(07:03):
inflammatory condition, you'repreventing all of that from
happening by feeding raw.
So why wouldn't you do it?
I don't know.
To me, it should be just like ano-brainer.
SPEAKER_02 (07:15):
Absolutely.
So I was doing some uh researchon why are private equity firms
buying veterinary clinics?
Why are they doing that?
And what I found out was that ithas dramatically um increased
over the last decade.
And why?
Because they find thatveterinary services are
(07:38):
considered non-discretionaryspending for our pet parents.
So people generally prioritizehealth care.
I wish they would prioritizetheir food as much, but they
prioritize health care for petseven during economic times.
Um, so the pet industry overallhas been growing steadily.
(07:58):
Um, Americans spend, Dr.
J.
Seek, about 140 billion annuallyon pets.
That's what they spent in 2024.
And so this cash flow, thisamount of money is very, very
appealing to private equityfirms because one, it's
predictable and it's lessvolatile than other um sectors
(08:23):
out there.
And so um, you know, tens ofthousands of small independently
owned clinics um are beinggobbled up.
And it's a huge growth potentialfor these private equity firms.
And I think what we also see isan opportunity for them to
(08:45):
consolidate the clinics.
You know, we were talking aboutthat.
And so what they do is theycreate these regional networks
and they begin to gain marketshare very, very quickly.
And once they consolidate theseclinics, then their economies of
scale change.
So, what do they get to do?
(09:06):
They get to bulk purchase ofsupplies, standardize their
protocols, not a good thing asfar as we can see.
And then they centralize all oftheir administrative um stuff.
So they really, really do beginto profit uh exponentially off
(09:27):
of these purchases.
Now, did you hear me sayanything, Dr.
Jasek, about how that improvesthe health of the pet?
SPEAKER_00 (09:36):
Right, right.
They're no concern about thehealth of the pet.
And the the protocols that theyso the vets that get into these
places, they're required, theyhave to use the protocols that
the clinic they're at says, youknow, this comes in, this is why
they have to diagnose.
They have to name something.
When they name something, thisis the acceptable protocol.
(09:57):
The protocols are not aboutmaking the pets healthy, they're
about what's going to make themost money and what's most
profitable, what's a markup?
That's why they push vaccines somuch, because there's like, you
know, a vaccine costs aveterinarian probably three to
five dollars.
That's their out-of-pocket costto buy it.
And they're charging what,$30 or$40 for a vaccine.
(10:18):
That's a huge, huge markup.
So they're looking at theprocedures that are the most
profitable, and they're tellingthe vets, okay, you work here,
this condition comes in, this iswhat you need to recommend.
Then the vets are also workingon a percentage of production
too.
So they're in, they'reincentivized to you know, to
(10:40):
sell this stuff.
It's it's really evil becauseit's killing pets, it's
murdering pets.
It's it's literally murderingpets.
And I would say that if if youare in an area where you can
find a solo practitioner andjust call them up and ask, hey,
are you guys owned by acorporation?
You know, this the receptionistshould be able to tell you, or
are you?
Because sometimes it's hard toknow because they don't always
(11:02):
put like BCA or Blue Pearl orsomething out there.
They might keep the same name.
They're just owned by a bigcorporation.
Those clinics would be will bemore willing to work with you.
If you want to go in and say,hey, you know, I don't really
want to vaccinate my dog, willyou see me, you know, without
that?
They'd be more willing to workwith you than a corporation,
(11:24):
like they got their rules, andthat's it.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (11:28):
The the the private equity group, their goal is to
maximize revenue per patient andreduce operational cost.
And they said that many timesthis is at the expense of
veterinarian autonomy, which iswhat you just said.
You know, they're that they havethis.
(11:50):
And the other reasons that umthat these private equity firms
love this is because it ebita uhor ebitah, yeah.
So that's earnings beforeinterest, taxes, depreciation,
and amortization.
So they can resell, they canresell these consolidated groups
(12:11):
that they've you know bought up,and they can resell them for
high multiples just after a fewyears, like five years or so.
So um their clinics, these goodclinics um with strong cash flow
and loyal client bases, thoseare their prime targets.
And so they say that that whatthis leads to uh is that it
(12:37):
causes pressure on veterinariansto upsell treatments, upsell
treatments that what your dogreally needs.
Um, they say it also reduces, socombine these two, Dr.
JC.
It pressures the veterinariansto upsell treatments and it
reduces the autonomy in caredecisions.
(13:01):
Now that sounds about as good ofan idea as it was to incentivize
doctors to give COVID vaccines.
SPEAKER_00 (13:12):
Right, right.
So what that means is the vetshave no choice in what they're
doing.
They're they're automatons,they're like robots.
Maybe that's where they'regoing.
They could just put a robot inthere and say, for this
condition, these symptoms, youjust, you know, plug the
symptoms into AI and say, thisis the condition and this is how
you treat it.
And they're just automatons.
(13:32):
That's probably why the suiciderate's so high in veterinary
medicine, because it's it's notfulfilling.
How could it be fulfilling towork that way?
But they, you know, they need apaycheck in their corporate
jobs, so they get benefits andpay time off and all that stuff.
So it's attractive, especiallyif you have hundreds of
thousands of dollars in inschool debt.
But I don't I don't know howthey how the vets can do it
(13:55):
though long term.
I mean, to me, I feel like I wasselling my soul.
SPEAKER_02 (13:59):
Well, and they say the turnover is huge, right?
So maybe you get even lesscaring vets, right?
You've got this big turnover,the ones that have a soul, and
they're like, this isn't right.
You know, okay, so you justbrought in this new ultrasound
machine.
(14:19):
So I'm supposed to upsell thismany when I see a little crack
or a little opening thatsomebody may need an ultrasound
for their pet, then I'm supposedto say it.
And it's just like these diets,Dr.
Jason, that I see coming out of,you know, veterinary clinics,
(14:40):
like the one I just talked abouta second ago.
People just believe that.
They're just like, okay, well,they don't know.
I'm not saying that people arestupid.
Um, what I'm saying is thatyou're supposed to be able to
trust your healthcareprofessionals.
So they tell you these thingsand you just have to believe
(15:02):
them and spend the money.
And I don't know what people aredoing that do not have the money
to pay for what do you think anultrasound costs these days?
SPEAKER_00 (15:14):
Well, clients are telling me it's like$800 or
something like that to do anultrasound.
I mean, that's double what likeI used to, when I had an on-site
practice in Colorado, we had amobile radiology service that
would come in and do it.
And I think we were chargingaround$400.
But from what I hear, it'seasily, easily doubled.
And you know, that's the otherthing about these private equity
(15:36):
companies, is well, I know a lotof them own these prescription
diets too, the diet companieslike Roa Keenan and Hills.
I think they're owned by thesecompanies.
So they're, of course, they'repromoting those products because
then, you know, again, that'sanother income stream.
But I bet they they've got ahand in the probably in the
pharmaceutical industry and inthe labs.
(15:56):
I think they push all this workbecause I bet they're investing,
so they do a lot of stuffin-house.
So they're probably invested inthe companies making those lab
machines that they so they canrun blood work and do
ultrasounds and x-rays and mri'sand ct scans, all that
machinery.
I bet they're invested in thosecompanies too.
I bet they're invested in in allof it.
(16:17):
And so it's like you weresaying, they just get money
coming in from all these allthese different angles.
And I don't think people can'tafford it.
You know, they either like aremaxing out their credit cards or
they euthanize.
It's really tragic to think howmany pets are euthanized because
people can't can't afford it.
(16:39):
I I have a friend that works ata ER in Knoxville, and she was
telling me that she's a tech.
And she was telling me that, youknow, they had somebody come in,
dog was seizuring, and I don'tknow, they gave it, I gave them
a quote, multiple thousanddollars to work it up or
whatever, they couldn't affordit.
So they just sent it out thedoor.
(16:59):
It didn't even help.
And you could do somethingsimple, you could give it a
simple prescription at least, orsomething to stop the seizures.
You could do a simple physicalexam.
You could do something for ahundred bucks to help a dog like
that and still make money.
Um, but they but they won't doit, they won't do it.
SPEAKER_02 (17:18):
No, and and what it's saying is that these that
these private equity companies,these corporate companies,
they're charging at least 20%more than an independent would.
And that's across the board onvaccines, dentals, any kind of
procedures.
But they're also what the bigthing is in these corporately
owned clinics is like what we'resaying, it's the upselling of
(17:42):
these diagnostic test andelective procedures.
And um they package it so thatit maximizes the revenue per
patient.
So, what are we saying here?
We're saying that tests andprocedures are being done that
(18:02):
don't need to be done.
They're just packaged so thatthe private equity firms can
make as much money as possibleper dog or cat or horse or
ferret or whatever else is goingin there.
And that that these vets arebeing pressured to add
(18:22):
additional treatments or packagedeals, right?
And um, so it is it is it istragic.
It is tragic.
And so what are we saying?
We're saying you gotta stay outof there, you gotta stay out of
there until this thing turnsaround.
And I don't know what's gonnahappen.
I I don't know what's gonnahappen because you they're
(18:45):
requiring vets to work longerhours.
Um, they have fewer supportstaff per vet.
Okay.
Um and so they've got increasedburnout.
So uh that I mean that kind ofsystem can only last.
SPEAKER_00 (19:03):
It's not it's it can't it's not sustainable, it
just can't it can't possibly beum sustainable.
So maybe that'll happen.
They'll they'll just they'llcrumble because these private
equity companies, as soon asthey stop making money in a
certain you know, area, they'lljust move on to something else,
they'll just pull the rug out.
So, and and I heard I wastelling you earlier that I was
(19:27):
actually listening to a podcastjust this morning, Catherine
Austin Fitz, and she was sayingthat the companies that these
private equity companies arefunding are going bankrupt
because they come in and theyjust make as much money as they
can as fast as they can, butthey're not looking at a
sustainable business model.
It's just they're like vampires.
They just get in there and theyjust extract as much as they can
(19:50):
as fast as they can, and thenthey move on to the next
company.
They don't care.
These companies go out ofbusiness.
They're that greedy and thatevil.
SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
So I was asking the question uh in my research
about, you know, how do petparents avoid these clinics?
How do they how do they avoidthese?
And it was saying that there aredistinct corporate brands.
Okay, so these are the ones thatare very identifiable, Dr.
(20:22):
JC.
Mars, so that's going to bebandfilled.
So your bandfills, your VCAanimal hospitals, your national
veterinary associations, uhassociates, it's called.
Um PetVet is one of them, andMedVet is another one.
(20:43):
Okay.
Um, also, you guys, you cancheck clinic websites um where
they should list their ownershipinformation, and you can look in
that about section.
Um, you're gonna look at theclinic name, the ownership, um,
or it might even say clinic nameand then private equity.
(21:05):
So you and and then you want toalso look at articles.
So look at news articles, do aresearch on a clinic that you're
gonna go to and see if there'sany press releases that indicate
corporate acquisition.
Um, and you can look onFacebook, next door, all that
kind of jazz.
And then it's cough clinic.
(21:27):
Ask them, you know, is thisyeah, is this clinic
independently owned, or is itpart of a, you know, a big
conglomerate or a largernetwork?
Or, you know, they I don't knowif you said private equity, they
they may not know what to say,but you know, ask them who owns
the practice.
And then a really, reallycritical question, Dr.
(21:48):
JC, is are treatment decisionsmade locally by veterinarians or
corporate management?
Like if I decide that I don'twant to do something in this
package in your deal, do I havethat option to say no?
Or are you gonna sit me out thedoor and say, well, we're just
(22:10):
not gonna do anything for you?
SPEAKER_00 (22:12):
Another question is uh do your veterinarians
practice informed consent?
Like, meaning they should sitdown with you and go through
every item.
Like they're recommending aprocedure, and I don't care if
it's a vaccine, or they're gonnatake your pet in the back and
take an x-ray.
They should sit down with youand they should go over the pros
and cons, the reasons they'redoing it, because they just
(22:34):
recommend stuff and people areworried about their pet, and the
butt could come with like abunch of tests and stuff.
We need to do all this stuff,and they're like, okay, go
ahead.
I just want my pet better.
They should be going through andexplaining everything they're
doing and why they're doing it.
And even if you don't know thespecifics about the medical
part, I think your common sensewill tell you.
(22:55):
If they're giving you reasonsthat just like, okay, but that
doesn't have anything to do withwhat's going on with my pet.
I think your common sense willtell you.
And if you call them on that andthey're stumbling over their
answers, you know when peopleare are telling the truth and
they're up front or they're justtrying to pull something over on
you.
And they all should be, I mean,any practice code I've ever
(23:16):
read, I haven't read all ofthem, but I've read a number of
them in the United States, theyall speak to some aspect of
informed consent, meaning theseveterinarians are obligated by
their license to inform you ofit's isn't just this is just
simple medical ethics.
You explain the proceduresyou're recommending and what the
(23:39):
cost is and what's the benefitto the to the pet.
And then if we find out this,you know, does it change?
And another great question whenit comes to testing is well,
does that change our treatmentoptions?
Because a lot of times they canrun all these tests, but they're
gonna treat your pet exactly thesame.
And they've just run up a bigbill without really providing
(24:01):
any more um useful information.
So I'd I'd be asking a lot ofquestions, which is hard when
you're pet sick, but you kind ofgot to be prepared.
If you know this stuff ahead oftime, have your list of have
them written down because whenyou're upset because you're pet
sick, you might not um rememberbecause we get kind of get we
(24:23):
forget things when we're afraid,and that's natural, but you
know, have them written down andgo in and and ask.
And if you have a like you canfind a smaller clinic, make make
an appointment to go in and justtalk to them before you're pet
sick.
Just pay for an office visit.
Just say, I want to go in andcome in and meet the vet and ask
your questions, like things thatare important to you about
(24:43):
informed consent and vaccinesand how they roll, and then
you'll have an idea how theyoperate before you really need
them, and then you go in andyou're afraid.
SPEAKER_02 (24:53):
Yeah.
Um, the other thing too, and onething I love about what you do,
it is telemedicine.
Okay.
So I think a great way, and andI think you have the services,
correct me if I'm wrong.
A great way would be if ifsomebody was getting ready to go
in to the to the vet or youknow, have to have a hands-on
(25:16):
experience.
Can you guys um consult withthem on how and what they might
look for?
You know, kind of the questionsthat they might ask prior to
going into that corporateclinic.
If you found out that the placethat you use is a private equity
firm, can you consult with folkson that?
(25:36):
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00 (25:37):
We can, you know, we could go over like what's going
on with the pet, and then I cansay, okay, these are the things
they should be looking for.
These are the tests they shouldbe doing.
They should be addressing likethe pet parents' biggest
concern.
I I was telling you this storyearlier about a client I just
talked to this week, and theythe pet had some blood coming
(26:00):
from its back end, and shewasn't sure where, took the dog
in.
And they were focused on somelumps that the dog had that, you
know, we addressed on the call,but they never addressed the the
blood.
Like, was it coming, you know,from the colon?
Was it an abscessed anal gland?
I said, did they even look backthere or do it digital?
(26:21):
Normally, you see blood backthere, you you know, stick your
finger up their bum and checktheir anal glands, make sure
there's not a mask growingthere.
They did nothing.
Nothing.
They didn't even check the themain concern that the pet parent
was going in for.
So, yeah, knowing whichquestions to ask and which
things that they should be doingand things that they don't need
(26:44):
to be doing, um, absolutely, youcould help with that.
SPEAKER_02 (26:49):
Now, I want to make this clear online veterinary
clinics take you out of the mix,Dr.
JC.
But there are many of theseorganizations like Dutch,
Investor, uh, or Vetster, andTelevates, these are all owned
by private equity companies,guys.
(27:09):
So understand that that justbecause they are a Televat does
not mean that they are not stillunder that structure that we
talked about, right?
It's upsell, upsell.
Um, and again, private equityfirms, the name of the game is
(27:30):
buy low, sell high.
That's what they do.
They make money.
That's what they do.
They do it on everything,they're doing it on housing,
they're doing it on, you know,the but it, but it's not good
for your pets.
It's not good for your pets.
So um, Dr.
Jasic is not corporately owned.
Um, yeah, it's a small group, soyou are very, very safe there.
SPEAKER_00 (27:53):
Yeah, yeah, those online companies, those are I I,
you know, one of them actuallyTucker Carlson promotes on his
podcast.
So I went in and looked it up,you know, because he always says
what I think it's Dutch.
Is it Dutch that he promotes?
Yeah, it's Dutch.
And and that, you know, he's doglover and everything.
And it was all it's all about,you know, save the trip to the
(28:14):
vet and blah blah blah.
But then I go on their site andit's just all the drugs.
It's just all the same, all thesame drugs, the you know,
ApoQuil and all these thingsthat we recommend against.
And they're not even doing anexam.
They're just okay, which drugscan we sell?
And you and you better believethat those vets are trained to
(28:36):
sell probably as many drugs asthey can.
They're not doing testing oranything, so they're making
their money selling thepharmaceuticals.
SPEAKER_02 (28:43):
It's crazy.
It is absolutely crazy.
And and you know, another crazything, and and you guys have
probably been hearing about thisuh in the um, you know, in the
news, is all of this fraudthat's happening in all of these
programs, um, Dr.
Jasek.
(29:04):
And I I'm talking aboutMedicare, I'm talking about
SNAP, I'm talking aboutMedicaid.
Um there's so much fraud, waste,improper money moving around.
And it it is a huge, hugeconcern.
You know, a lot of us just tuneout and go, well, there's
nothing I can do.
Well, I think there is somethingthat you can do.
(29:26):
Um, you can talk to, you know,the people that are in charge in
your state.
And fraud gets passed to theconsumer.
It always gets when when all ofthis money is just you know
being taken, or um, we don'tknow where it goes, and they're
(29:50):
coming up with all of this fraudthat's happening, it is going
into your it is costing you.
It's costing you it's it'snothing is for free.
So if cost of goods get higherand higher because there's so
much fraud going on, and we'retalking billions, okay.
(30:11):
Um 100 billion dollars, right,has been attributed to Medicare
and Medicaid alone, right?
Um, and so all of this fraudcost us.
SPEAKER_00 (30:27):
It cost us.
The consumer always pays.
Always pays.
A company loses money,government loses money, they you
know, you get charged more fees,more taxes, more whatever.
It always gets passeddownstream.
SPEAKER_02 (30:44):
Yeah.
So I do think, I do think umthat we we have to be concerned
about it.
We we have to look, you might aswell say somebody is just
stealing from you, Dr.
Jasak.
I mean, because that is what itis.
SPEAKER_00 (31:05):
That's what that's what fraud is, right?
It's somebody typically makingmoney in a dishonest way.
And if you're making money in adishonest way, you're usually
taking it from somebody else.
Exactly.
Support your local businesses,you know, like you guys, you
know.
Um, you know, I I love here, Iwe actually our farmer's market
(31:28):
here is still going on, it'syear-round, and there people sit
out there in the cold.
Um, and and you know, becauseit's Tennessee, some people have
greenhouses and stuff, andthey'll grow produce and stuff.
So I can go there and I alwayssupport our local producers.
I pay cash, so it saves them thecredit card fees because every
little bit matters.
I mean, if you think every sale,you know, what you know, two and
(31:52):
a half, three percent.
And we use credit cards becausewe're online.
I mean, that's how our clientspay us.
But you know, we we youcompanies, businesses pay a lot
in credit card fees, and that'sthat can be a big chunk on a
real small business.
Um, big that could be a bigchunk of their income that's I
mean big expense for them everymonth.
So, you know, take care of yourlocal, don't support the
(32:14):
corporations.
Vote, vote with your dollar.
You know, I listen to JoelSoliton a lot, the regenerative
farmer, and he says, you know,if you want to hurt a company
like Tyson, these big chickenmanufacturers, he said, you
start buying from your localproducers.
He's like, we don't need moregovernment intervention or
(32:37):
anything, and that isn't gonnawork anyway, because these big
companies in the government are,I think, are all in bed together
anyway.
They're buying the thesecompanies come in and lobby and
they get the laws passed thatthey want, but vote with your
dollar, buy from your localfarmer, support the small vet.
Maybe you got to drive a littlefurther, maybe you got to drive
(32:58):
45 minutes to go to a local vetthat's not corporately owned.
Go see them because they'recompeting with these big
companies, and that's hard onthe small companies, just like
you know, you guys, Dee Dee.
You know, you want to supportthe companies that are trying to
stay independent and are notgonna sell out to these big
companies.
(33:19):
So I think voting with yourdollar can make a real big
difference.
SPEAKER_02 (33:22):
Absolutely.
And you know, I was looking atwhere they were saying that some
studies estimate that areas withthese high snap fraud incidents,
those areas are going to seehigher grocery prices.
And they said, particularly inthe fresh produce or meat.
(33:43):
Now that's real food, right?
You got the SNAP programs thatthey're paying for, that they,
you know, maybe not the bestfood on that program, then they
need to change that.
But you're gonna see highergrocery prices in the real fresh
produce or meat area.
And the other thing about fraudis that when fraud is committed,
(34:10):
Dr.
J Sig, fighting fraud, fightingfraud is something that we don't
think about, adds significantoverhead.
So you talk about you've now gota monitor, you've got to audit,
you've got enforcement, you'vegot technology upgrades.
So it's not a small thing.
It is a huge thing when we hearabout fraud, and it is something
(34:36):
that is coming out of yourpocketbook, and it's going to
cause all of us in in the world,you know, higher prices.
So we need to really do what wecan to say, hey, I'm not okay
with with people stealing fromme.
I'm not okay.
And that doesn't make you a badperson.
(34:58):
You know, that's sort of like Ihave heard this before.
Um, it's not my view, but I haveheard it.
Hey, somebody came in and stolefrom me.
Well, that's okay because theymust have needed it.
Right.
I've heard that one.
Yeah, well, I'm not okay withthat.
You know, um I I just am notokay.
(35:21):
I it's sort of like this.
I had a neighbor who every timetheir yard man came, they would
blow the leaves and it wouldcome over, just tons of leaves,
come over and go into my back umarea after I've already raked up
all my leaves.
(35:42):
And so I said, Hey, can you getyour yard guys to um not uh blow
the leaves from your yard intomy yard?
And she said, Well, I've neverhad anyone complain before.
I said, Okay, but I'mcomplaining now.
I'm complaining now, and and herresponse to me was this Well,
(36:05):
what am I supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00 (36:08):
I said, Teach your guys to blow it differently or
rake it, or you can have themcome over and clean up the the
leaves that are which shouldjust be common sense from a yard
company that you don't blow itinto somebody else's yard,
you're cleaning up somebody'syard and you just blow it into
somebody, they should be likevacuuming them up.
If the houses, you know, arekind of close together, they
(36:29):
should just be sucking them up,you know, in a vacuum.
SPEAKER_02 (36:32):
Like, does that make any sense?
Because nobody's ever complainedbefore, and because you don't
know what else to do, that'd belike me going and dumping my
trash next door and saying, Hey,nobody's ever complained about
me doing it before.
That should be all right then,right?
SPEAKER_00 (36:50):
I mean, let Lasi go over there and poop in their
yard or something, like nobody'scomplained before.
SPEAKER_02 (36:57):
But this is kind of the the we have been programmed
to not complain because it mightupset somebody.
And I'm like, well, it'supsetting me that your stuff is
coming into my yard, and itupsets me that these fraud
programs are costing me moremoney to eat well, to take care
(37:20):
of myself, and then take care ofmy dog, and then I've got to go
into the private equity firmsthat are going to upsell me and
have a package, and their onlyagenda is to make money.
Yeah, that upsets me.
SPEAKER_00 (37:34):
Yeah, stealing stealing's never okay.
Oh, come on, Dr.
J-Z.
Stealing's, yeah, never okay.
And you know what?
If somebody came up to you andsaid, Didi, you know, I'm having
kind of a rough month, could youhelp me out a little bit?
I bet you would in a heartbeatbecause they asked.
But if they sneak into yourhouse and steal from you, it's
different.
(37:54):
It's it's you know, this is notlike you're unwilling to help
people, it's let's, you know, doit in an honest way.
SPEAKER_02 (38:04):
Right.
I actually had a customer onetime, um, actually, this was
just a year ago, um take$600worth of food when they had only
ordered$200 worth of food.
So the the packages had gottenmixed up.
Now they didn't bother to calland say, hey, I've got the wrong
(38:26):
uh order, even had anothercustomer's name on it.
But here was their response whenwe asked for the incorrect order
to be written.
They said, You have the worstcustomer service ever.
And I said, Well, because we'reasking you not to steal from us,
(38:50):
and that was just I was theworst.
They would never buy from meagain because I asked them to
not steal from me.
And I said, Dr.
JC, the person who paid for that$600 order would like to have
that.
They would like to because theystole from them too, because
(39:12):
they stole their food.
Right.
But you want to keep the foodthat you took from another
customer, and then I'm supposedto absorb all of those costs,
right?
It's the same thing.
What happens to a company ifpeople steal and steal and steal
from you?
If you're gonna stay inbusiness, you're gonna pass
those prices on to consumers.
So stealing is never a goodthing.
(39:34):
Right on any level.
Never a good thing.
Never a good thing.
Just don't do it.
Right, right.
So I I I think that, you know,if if we just open up our
vision, open up our peripheralvision, look outside of the box
that we find ourselves in a lotof the times, and realize that
(39:55):
we've been our boxes keepgetting smaller and we keep.
Getting programmed to believethat we don't have the rights
that we have.
We have the rights to protectour pets, to push back on um
programs that are processes thatwe don't want our pets to have.
(40:18):
And if they will not do it, wehave to find someone else.
SPEAKER_00 (40:22):
Those vets are working for you.
You're paying them.
They're like your employee.
People get intimidated by thewhite coat and all that.
You're paying them.
They're like your employee.
They're working for you.
They don't have control overyou.
They want you to believe that,but they don't have any control.
(40:43):
Your pet's health is 100% inyour hands.
And that includes things likegiving it a rabies shot.
You don't want to do that?
That should absolutely be yourchoice.
That's between you and the law.
Vets have should have nothing tosay about that.
And so you people just need toconfront vets.
And the clients I have that havestronger personalities that have
(41:04):
gone in, you don't have to bemean or confrontational because
you don't want to burn bridges.
If you got a vet you'd like towork with, just say, look, this
is how I roll.
I may be like when this is how Iroll.
I don't vaccinate and I feed rawand yada yada yada.
And will you work with me?
I'd like to give you mybusiness.
They say no, then they're outthe door.
They say, yeah, sure.
(41:25):
Then they, you know, they thenand people will laugh about it.
They're like, yeah, we get thelittle star on our chart that
we're the kookie person, youknow.
But who cares?
Who cares what they think aboutyou?
You're in it for your pet.
Who cares if they don't likeyou?
Who cares if they talk about youat their next staff meeting
because you're one of the crazypeople that doesn't want to
vaccinate and feeds raw?
Who cares?
(41:45):
You're in it for your pet.
And if you can find a vet thatwill work with you, because
sometimes you're just going toneed those services that won't
push all these things, you know,you've got to stand up.
You're you're doing it, you'redoing it for your pet.
So you got to get out of yourcomfort zone and just do it.
SPEAKER_02 (42:02):
Just do it.
Yeah, it's a different mindsetwhen you are coming in and
you're going to a vet knowingthat it's a it's a private
equity or a corporately ownedclinic.
You have a different mindset.
You are going to be able to spotthe upsell.
You're going to be able toquestion better, right?
(42:25):
You're ready and you're equippedto question if you know what the
protocol typically is.
And then you don't feel likeyou're the bad, you know, cookie
pet parent because you'rewanting proof or you're not
wanting to do this.
Okay.
So it's a totally differentmindset.
And again, I would encourage youto work with Dr.
(42:47):
JC Scroop.
You can go over to ahvet.com.
Okay.
Ah vet.com.
They can consult with you on thequestions.
Maybe they can look at theclinic.
There's a lot of things thatthey'll be able to help you do.
Um, if you are confused.
Okay.
So you want to get over thereand work with Dr.
(43:08):
JC's group.
If you need help getting yourdog on a species appropriate raw
diet, or your cat or yourferret, okay, we can help you
here at Raw Dog Food andCompany.
SPEAKER_00 (43:19):
Or your mountain lion or your bear or whatever.
Whatever is uh your yourcarnivore carnivore, your
carnivore of choice.
SPEAKER_02 (43:28):
That's right.
Your carnivore of choice, okay?
Just get over to rawdogfoodandcompany.com.
Brian is gonna help you.
You can go into our chat, youcan sign up for the consult.
You can send us a text, you cansend us an email.
We will help you and we will getback with you.
Uh your pet's health is ourbusiness here at Raw Dog Food
and Company.
(43:49):
Uh, and I said that backwards.
Let's see.
Where your pet's health is ourbusiness.
See, I have to say it insequence.
It's like a song.
Because it's automatic.
Yeah.
And if you say it in the wrongorder, then you goof me up and I
miss my cue.
There's another part.
All right.
Uh, get over to rawdogfoodandcompany.com where your
pet's health is our business.
And what, Dr.
(44:10):
Jason?
Friends don't let friends feedkibble, y'all.
That's right.
We'll see you guys soon,everybody.
Bye bye.
Bye.
SPEAKER_01 (44:16):
Oh, snap, snap, snap.
Find out how you can start yourdog on the road to health and
longevity.
Go to raw dogfoodandcompany.com,where friends don't let friends
feed kibble, and where your petshealth is our business.
Oh, snaps, snaps.
Well, hello, raw feeders.
I'm Dee Dee Mercer Moffat, CEOof a raw dog food and company.
Where your pet's health is ourbusiness, and we're friends like
my friend, Dr.
Judy Jasik.
Oh, she didn't let friends feedkibble or crappy raw diets
either.
How are you this morning, Dr.
Jasik?
Good.
A little chilly, chilly anddamp.
SPEAKER_00 (00:20):
It's chilly and damp here.
That's like cold rain.
It's like mid-30s and rainy.
unknown (00:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:25):
So it's kind of winter in Tennessee, but it's
okay.
The winter doesn't last verylong here.
So we can we can put we finallygot enough boxes unpacked that
we could actually pull our carsin the garage.
So because you get some icehere, you know, it drops just
below freezing and everythinggets icy.
So it'd be really nice to haveto scrape windshields.
So that's that's gonna feelpretty luxurious.
We haven't had a uh like anactual garage since we left
(00:47):
Colorado.
We had a carport in our lastplace, which was nice.
I mean, that helps, you know.
Um, but it wasn't attached tothe house, so you still had to
like, you know, walk in the rainand stuff to get to it.
So we're we're moving, we'removing on up now.
SPEAKER_02 (01:00):
So yesterday, um, Lazie did a cold plunge and then
she she didn't hear pool.
She didn't mean yeah, it was soit was that Rick was not happy
about it, but I mean, look, dogsknow how to swim.
But she was she was barking atthe dog on the other side of us,
and and she she backed up andjust fell right in the pool.
(01:22):
And her nails came up.
She was like, I think she couldhave pulled herself all the way
up, but I just grabbed her bythe scruff of the neck and
pulled her out.
And so like okay, she could haveswum.
Yeah, so she was just happenedto be on the one side that there
wasn't a step, right?
And so my brother said, Look,he's been training dogs forever
for she's hunting dogs, right?
(01:43):
Yeah, and so he's like, Here'swhat you do you you just carry
her out to the pool, have herstay where the steps are, and
put her in the pool, and then hecalls her over to the step.
And he said, You do that twice,she will never forget where the
steps are.
Oh, should be a smart idea.
Yeah, he's like, dogs are supersmart.
He said, Unlike people, theydon't make the same mistake
(02:03):
twice, typically.
I said, twice.
That's all you make a mistake,the same mistake over and ever.
I tend to have made it quite afew times.
The same way, it can be a slowlearner sometimes.
Yeah.
Hey, speaking of mistakes, youknow, listen, home diets can be
a huge mistake, Dr.
JC.
(02:24):
And I'll tell you another thingthat can be a huge mistake are
allergy tests.
We've talked a lot about those.
Um, we really do want toencourage our listeners that
number one, not to do an allergytest.
I mean, unless you have doneeverything possible.
And what do we mean byeverything possible?
We mean stop putting toxins inyour dog's body, look at a
(02:46):
homeopathic solution, and stopputting um things that a dog or
a cat doesn't need.
And what some of those thingsare for certain are they don't
need pumpkin every day for sure.
It's high in sugar.
They definitely don't needpotatoes of any sort.
They don't need sweet or white,okay, or yammies or anything
(03:09):
like that.
And they don't need rice, guys,and they don't need tuna.
Okay.
So I was just looking atsomebody's diet today that they
were doing for their dog.
And I hate to offend people.
So I just kind of say, listen,this is my recommendation based
on years and years ofnutritional consults and what we
(03:30):
see and what we know.
Um, but but definitely you gotto take out beans and green
beans.
I mean, if you want to put a fewin there, okay.
But I just don't see beans as aprotein source a good option for
carnivore, guys.
And certainly tuna, tuna, highin heavy metals.
So um we can help you with thediet.
(03:52):
That's what we do here at RawDog Food and Company.
Remember, Brian is waiting foryou patiently.
It's just sign up and he's gonnahelp you.
Okay.
And Brian loves this stuff.
So he even though it says 20minutes, it'll probably be more
like 60.
Okay.
It's totally free.
We'll get you on a good diet.
Um, on that note, Dr.
Jasak, we definitely are seeingmassive, massive fraud in the
(04:17):
world.
We'll come back to that in asecond.
But the and and how it affectsyour pricing in the in the raw,
in the pure raw, in the goodfood for your animals.
Um, but then another place thatwe really you know talk about a
lot, Dr.
Jason, are these prices in theveterinary clinic.
So if if you think you can'tafford a raw diet, I can assure
(04:41):
you you cannot afford a sick dogto go into the veterinary world.
Dr.
Jasak, why why are the prices soastronomical for going into the
vet's office?
SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
Because the the clinics, most of them are
corporate or good number.
I bet more than half.
I don't know the exactpercentage, but I would bet
these days more than half arebought up by these big
corporations, which are run bythese big private equity
companies, and they're onlyinterested in one thing.
And that's the bottom line.
Because the prices in recentyears, they've gone up by
(05:15):
multiples.
I mean like tripled.
And it doesn't cost them, itdoes not cost them that much
more to do these procedures.
I see some of these prices,surgeries that I used to do, and
they're like 10 times what Iused to charge.
Like, okay, everything goes upin price.
I can understand that, but goingup by multiples, that's just
(05:36):
greed, it pure and simple.
And as you know, you can takeyour pet into the ER, and I hear
this all the time.
You go in the ER for anything,five to ten grand.
You can almost count onsomething like if they,
especially if they have to stayor they do testing, it's
ridiculously expensive.
So people don't have insurance.
(05:58):
Um, you know, you better, youknow, have some money, have some
money socked away.
And they also don't give peoplechoices.
They don't say, well, this isthe most expensive approach, we
can do this, but we could alsodo this approach.
It's the most expensive approachor euthanasia.
Those are your choices.
So that's why doing what keepsyour pet healthiest at home and
(06:21):
understanding how to keep yourpet healthy is so important
because you gotta stay out ofthe world of veterinary
medicine.
That's what I tell people.
Don't take your pet in unlessit's obviously hurt or bleeding,
broke a leg, or you know,seriously ill.
Um, but yeah, like feeding rawis like an insurance policy,
right?
You absolutely it is.
(06:42):
Feed them raw, you invest alittle more.
It's like, you know, you payinsurance on your home, or if
you're renting, you pay renters'insurance so that if something
happens, you're covered.
But to me, it's like you'repreventing so many illnesses
from happening, like GI issuesand the itchy skin and uh any
(07:03):
inflammatory condition, you'repreventing all of that from
happening by feeding raw.
So why wouldn't you do it?
I don't know.
To me, it should be just like ano-brainer.
SPEAKER_02 (07:15):
Absolutely.
So I was doing some uh researchon why are private equity firms
buying veterinary clinics?
Why are they doing that?
And what I found out was that ithas dramatically um increased
over the last decade.
And why?
Because they find thatveterinary services are
(07:38):
considered non-discretionaryspending for our pet parents.
So people generally prioritizehealth care.
I wish they would prioritizetheir food as much, but they
prioritize health care for petseven during economic times.
Um, so the pet industry overallhas been growing steadily.
(07:58):
Um, Americans spend, Dr.
J.
Seek, about 140 billion annuallyon pets.
That's what they spent in 2024.
And so this cash flow, thisamount of money is very, very
appealing to private equityfirms because one, it's
predictable and it's lessvolatile than other um sectors
(08:23):
out there.
And so um, you know, tens ofthousands of small independently
owned clinics um are beinggobbled up.
And it's a huge growth potentialfor these private equity firms.
And I think what we also see isan opportunity for them to
(08:45):
consolidate the clinics.
You know, we were talking aboutthat.
And so what they do is theycreate these regional networks
and they begin to gain marketshare very, very quickly.
And once they consolidate theseclinics, then their economies of
scale change.
So, what do they get to do?
(09:06):
They get to bulk purchase ofsupplies, standardize their
protocols, not a good thing asfar as we can see.
And then they centralize all oftheir administrative um stuff.
So they really, really do beginto profit uh exponentially off
(09:27):
of these purchases.
Now, did you hear me sayanything, Dr.
Jasek, about how that improvesthe health of the pet?
SPEAKER_00 (09:36):
Right, right.
They're no concern about thehealth of the pet.
And the the protocols that theyso the vets that get into these
places, they're required, theyhave to use the protocols that
the clinic they're at says, youknow, this comes in, this is why
they have to diagnose.
They have to name something.
When they name something, thisis the acceptable protocol.
(09:57):
The protocols are not aboutmaking the pets healthy, they're
about what's going to make themost money and what's most
profitable, what's a markup?
That's why they push vaccines somuch, because there's like, you
know, a vaccine costs aveterinarian probably three to
five dollars.
That's their out-of-pocket costto buy it.
And they're charging what,$30 or$40 for a vaccine.
(10:18):
That's a huge, huge markup.
So they're looking at theprocedures that are the most
profitable, and they're tellingthe vets, okay, you work here,
this condition comes in, this iswhat you need to recommend.
Then the vets are also workingon a percentage of production
too.
So they're in, they'reincentivized to you know, to
(10:40):
sell this stuff.
It's it's really evil becauseit's killing pets, it's
murdering pets.
It's it's literally murderingpets.
And I would say that if if youare in an area where you can
find a solo practitioner andjust call them up and ask, hey,
are you guys owned by acorporation?
You know, this the receptionistshould be able to tell you, or
are you?
Because sometimes it's hard toknow because they don't always
(11:02):
put like BCA or Blue Pearl orsomething out there.
They might keep the same name.
They're just owned by a bigcorporation.
Those clinics would be will bemore willing to work with you.
If you want to go in and say,hey, you know, I don't really
want to vaccinate my dog, willyou see me, you know, without
that?
They'd be more willing to workwith you than a corporation,
(11:24):
like they got their rules, andthat's it.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (11:28):
The the the private equity group, their goal is to
maximize revenue per patient andreduce operational cost.
And they said that many timesthis is at the expense of
veterinarian autonomy, which iswhat you just said.
You know, they're that they havethis.
(11:50):
And the other reasons that umthat these private equity firms
love this is because it ebita uhor ebitah, yeah.
So that's earnings beforeinterest, taxes, depreciation,
and amortization.
So they can resell, they canresell these consolidated groups
(12:11):
that they've you know bought up,and they can resell them for
high multiples just after a fewyears, like five years or so.
So um their clinics, these goodclinics um with strong cash flow
and loyal client bases, thoseare their prime targets.
And so they say that that whatthis leads to uh is that it
(12:37):
causes pressure on veterinariansto upsell treatments, upsell
treatments that what your dogreally needs.
Um, they say it also reduces, socombine these two, Dr.
JC.
It pressures the veterinariansto upsell treatments and it
reduces the autonomy in caredecisions.
(13:01):
Now that sounds about as good ofan idea as it was to incentivize
doctors to give COVID vaccines.
SPEAKER_00 (13:12):
Right, right.
So what that means is the vetshave no choice in what they're
doing.
They're they're automatons,they're like robots.
Maybe that's where they'regoing.
They could just put a robot inthere and say, for this
condition, these symptoms, youjust, you know, plug the
symptoms into AI and say, thisis the condition and this is how
you treat it.
And they're just automatons.
(13:32):
That's probably why the suiciderate's so high in veterinary
medicine, because it's it's notfulfilling.
How could it be fulfilling towork that way?
But they, you know, they need apaycheck in their corporate
jobs, so they get benefits andpay time off and all that stuff.
So it's attractive, especiallyif you have hundreds of
thousands of dollars in inschool debt.
But I don't I don't know howthey how the vets can do it
(13:55):
though long term.
I mean, to me, I feel like I wasselling my soul.
SPEAKER_02 (13:59):
Well, and they say the turnover is huge, right?
So maybe you get even lesscaring vets, right?
You've got this big turnover,the ones that have a soul, and
they're like, this isn't right.
You know, okay, so you justbrought in this new ultrasound
machine.
(14:19):
So I'm supposed to upsell thismany when I see a little crack
or a little opening thatsomebody may need an ultrasound
for their pet, then I'm supposedto say it.
And it's just like these diets,Dr.
Jason, that I see coming out of,you know, veterinary clinics,
(14:40):
like the one I just talked abouta second ago.
People just believe that.
They're just like, okay, well,they don't know.
I'm not saying that people arestupid.
Um, what I'm saying is thatyou're supposed to be able to
trust your healthcareprofessionals.
So they tell you these thingsand you just have to believe
(15:02):
them and spend the money.
And I don't know what people aredoing that do not have the money
to pay for what do you think anultrasound costs these days?
SPEAKER_00 (15:14):
Well, clients are telling me it's like$800 or
something like that to do anultrasound.
I mean, that's double what likeI used to, when I had an on-site
practice in Colorado, we had amobile radiology service that
would come in and do it.
And I think we were chargingaround$400.
But from what I hear, it'seasily, easily doubled.
And you know, that's the otherthing about these private equity
(15:36):
companies, is well, I know a lotof them own these prescription
diets too, the diet companieslike Roa Keenan and Hills.
I think they're owned by thesecompanies.
So they're, of course, they'repromoting those products because
then, you know, again, that'sanother income stream.
But I bet they they've got ahand in the probably in the
pharmaceutical industry and inthe labs.
(15:56):
I think they push all this workbecause I bet they're investing,
so they do a lot of stuffin-house.
So they're probably invested inthe companies making those lab
machines that they so they canrun blood work and do
ultrasounds and x-rays and mri'sand ct scans, all that
machinery.
I bet they're invested in thosecompanies too.
I bet they're invested in in allof it.
(16:17):
And so it's like you weresaying, they just get money
coming in from all these allthese different angles.
And I don't think people can'tafford it.
You know, they either like aremaxing out their credit cards or
they euthanize.
It's really tragic to think howmany pets are euthanized because
people can't can't afford it.
(16:39):
I I have a friend that works ata ER in Knoxville, and she was
telling me that she's a tech.
And she was telling me that, youknow, they had somebody come in,
dog was seizuring, and I don'tknow, they gave it, I gave them
a quote, multiple thousanddollars to work it up or
whatever, they couldn't affordit.
So they just sent it out thedoor.
(16:59):
It didn't even help.
And you could do somethingsimple, you could give it a
simple prescription at least, orsomething to stop the seizures.
You could do a simple physicalexam.
You could do something for ahundred bucks to help a dog like
that and still make money.
Um, but they but they won't doit, they won't do it.
SPEAKER_02 (17:18):
No, and and what it's saying is that these that
these private equity companies,these corporate companies,
they're charging at least 20%more than an independent would.
And that's across the board onvaccines, dentals, any kind of
procedures.
But they're also what the bigthing is in these corporately
owned clinics is like what we'resaying, it's the upselling of
(17:42):
these diagnostic test andelective procedures.
And um they package it so thatit maximizes the revenue per
patient.
So, what are we saying here?
We're saying that tests andprocedures are being done that
(18:02):
don't need to be done.
They're just packaged so thatthe private equity firms can
make as much money as possibleper dog or cat or horse or
ferret or whatever else is goingin there.
And that that these vets arebeing pressured to add
(18:22):
additional treatments or packagedeals, right?
And um, so it is it is it istragic.
It is tragic.
And so what are we saying?
We're saying you gotta stay outof there, you gotta stay out of
there until this thing turnsaround.
And I don't know what's gonnahappen.
I I don't know what's gonnahappen because you they're
(18:45):
requiring vets to work longerhours.
Um, they have fewer supportstaff per vet.
Okay.
Um and so they've got increasedburnout.
So uh that I mean that kind ofsystem can only last.
SPEAKER_00 (19:03):
It's not it's it can't it's not sustainable, it
just can't it can't possibly beum sustainable.
So maybe that'll happen.
They'll they'll just they'llcrumble because these private
equity companies, as soon asthey stop making money in a
certain you know, area, they'lljust move on to something else,
they'll just pull the rug out.
So, and and I heard I wastelling you earlier that I was
(19:27):
actually listening to a podcastjust this morning, Catherine
Austin Fitz, and she was sayingthat the companies that these
private equity companies arefunding are going bankrupt
because they come in and theyjust make as much money as they
can as fast as they can, butthey're not looking at a
sustainable business model.
It's just they're like vampires.
They just get in there and theyjust extract as much as they can
(19:50):
as fast as they can, and thenthey move on to the next
company.
They don't care.
These companies go out ofbusiness.
They're that greedy and thatevil.
SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
So I was asking the question uh in my research
about, you know, how do petparents avoid these clinics?
How do they how do they avoidthese?
And it was saying that there aredistinct corporate brands.
Okay, so these are the ones thatare very identifiable, Dr.
(20:22):
JC.
Mars, so that's going to bebandfilled.
So your bandfills, your VCAanimal hospitals, your national
veterinary associations, uhassociates, it's called.
Um PetVet is one of them, andMedVet is another one.
(20:43):
Okay.
Um, also, you guys, you cancheck clinic websites um where
they should list their ownershipinformation, and you can look in
that about section.
Um, you're gonna look at theclinic name, the ownership, um,
or it might even say clinic nameand then private equity.
(21:05):
So you and and then you want toalso look at articles.
So look at news articles, do aresearch on a clinic that you're
gonna go to and see if there'sany press releases that indicate
corporate acquisition.
Um, and you can look onFacebook, next door, all that
kind of jazz.
And then it's cough clinic.
(21:27):
Ask them, you know, is thisyeah, is this clinic
independently owned, or is itpart of a, you know, a big
conglomerate or a largernetwork?
Or, you know, they I don't knowif you said private equity, they
they may not know what to say,but you know, ask them who owns
the practice.
And then a really, reallycritical question, Dr.
(21:48):
JC, is are treatment decisionsmade locally by veterinarians or
corporate management?
Like if I decide that I don'twant to do something in this
package in your deal, do I havethat option to say no?
Or are you gonna sit me out thedoor and say, well, we're just
(22:10):
not gonna do anything for you?
SPEAKER_00 (22:12):
Another question is uh do your veterinarians
practice informed consent?
Like, meaning they should sitdown with you and go through
every item.
Like they're recommending aprocedure, and I don't care if
it's a vaccine, or they're gonnatake your pet in the back and
take an x-ray.
They should sit down with youand they should go over the pros
and cons, the reasons they'redoing it, because they just
(22:34):
recommend stuff and people areworried about their pet, and the
butt could come with like abunch of tests and stuff.
We need to do all this stuff,and they're like, okay, go
ahead.
I just want my pet better.
They should be going through andexplaining everything they're
doing and why they're doing it.
And even if you don't know thespecifics about the medical
part, I think your common sensewill tell you.
(22:55):
If they're giving you reasonsthat just like, okay, but that
doesn't have anything to do withwhat's going on with my pet.
I think your common sense willtell you.
And if you call them on that andthey're stumbling over their
answers, you know when peopleare are telling the truth and
they're up front or they're justtrying to pull something over on
you.
And they all should be, I mean,any practice code I've ever
(23:16):
read, I haven't read all ofthem, but I've read a number of
them in the United States, theyall speak to some aspect of
informed consent, meaning theseveterinarians are obligated by
their license to inform you ofit's isn't just this is just
simple medical ethics.
You explain the proceduresyou're recommending and what the
(23:39):
cost is and what's the benefitto the to the pet.
And then if we find out this,you know, does it change?
And another great question whenit comes to testing is well,
does that change our treatmentoptions?
Because a lot of times they canrun all these tests, but they're
gonna treat your pet exactly thesame.
And they've just run up a bigbill without really providing
(24:01):
any more um useful information.
So I'd I'd be asking a lot ofquestions, which is hard when
you're pet sick, but you kind ofgot to be prepared.
If you know this stuff ahead oftime, have your list of have
them written down because whenyou're upset because you're pet
sick, you might not um rememberbecause we get kind of get we
(24:23):
forget things when we're afraid,and that's natural, but you
know, have them written down andgo in and and ask.
And if you have a like you canfind a smaller clinic, make make
an appointment to go in and justtalk to them before you're pet
sick.
Just pay for an office visit.
Just say, I want to go in andcome in and meet the vet and ask
your questions, like things thatare important to you about
(24:43):
informed consent and vaccinesand how they roll, and then
you'll have an idea how theyoperate before you really need
them, and then you go in andyou're afraid.
SPEAKER_02 (24:53):
Yeah.
Um, the other thing too, and onething I love about what you do,
it is telemedicine.
Okay.
So I think a great way, and andI think you have the services,
correct me if I'm wrong.
A great way would be if ifsomebody was getting ready to go
in to the to the vet or youknow, have to have a hands-on
(25:16):
experience.
Can you guys um consult withthem on how and what they might
look for?
You know, kind of the questionsthat they might ask prior to
going into that corporateclinic.
If you found out that the placethat you use is a private equity
firm, can you consult with folkson that?
(25:36):
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00 (25:37):
We can, you know, we could go over like what's going
on with the pet, and then I cansay, okay, these are the things
they should be looking for.
These are the tests they shouldbe doing.
They should be addressing likethe pet parents' biggest
concern.
I I was telling you this storyearlier about a client I just
talked to this week, and theythe pet had some blood coming
(26:00):
from its back end, and shewasn't sure where, took the dog
in.
And they were focused on somelumps that the dog had that, you
know, we addressed on the call,but they never addressed the the
blood.
Like, was it coming, you know,from the colon?
Was it an abscessed anal gland?
I said, did they even look backthere or do it digital?
(26:21):
Normally, you see blood backthere, you you know, stick your
finger up their bum and checktheir anal glands, make sure
there's not a mask growingthere.
They did nothing.
Nothing.
They didn't even check the themain concern that the pet parent
was going in for.
So, yeah, knowing whichquestions to ask and which
things that they should be doingand things that they don't need
(26:44):
to be doing, um, absolutely, youcould help with that.
SPEAKER_02 (26:49):
Now, I want to make this clear online veterinary
clinics take you out of the mix,Dr.
JC.
But there are many of theseorganizations like Dutch,
Investor, uh, or Vetster, andTelevates, these are all owned
by private equity companies,guys.
(27:09):
So understand that that justbecause they are a Televat does
not mean that they are not stillunder that structure that we
talked about, right?
It's upsell, upsell.
Um, and again, private equityfirms, the name of the game is
(27:30):
buy low, sell high.
That's what they do.
They make money.
That's what they do.
They do it on everything,they're doing it on housing,
they're doing it on, you know,the but it, but it's not good
for your pets.
It's not good for your pets.
So um, Dr.
Jasic is not corporately owned.
Um, yeah, it's a small group, soyou are very, very safe there.
SPEAKER_00 (27:53):
Yeah, yeah, those online companies, those are I I,
you know, one of them actuallyTucker Carlson promotes on his
podcast.
So I went in and looked it up,you know, because he always says
what I think it's Dutch.
Is it Dutch that he promotes?
Yeah, it's Dutch.
And and that, you know, he's doglover and everything.
And it was all it's all about,you know, save the trip to the
(28:14):
vet and blah blah blah.
But then I go on their site andit's just all the drugs.
It's just all the same, all thesame drugs, the you know,
ApoQuil and all these thingsthat we recommend against.
And they're not even doing anexam.
They're just okay, which drugscan we sell?
And you and you better believethat those vets are trained to
(28:36):
sell probably as many drugs asthey can.
They're not doing testing oranything, so they're making
their money selling thepharmaceuticals.
SPEAKER_02 (28:43):
It's crazy.
It is absolutely crazy.
And and you know, another crazything, and and you guys have
probably been hearing about thisuh in the um, you know, in the
news, is all of this fraudthat's happening in all of these
programs, um, Dr.
Jasek.
(29:04):
And I I'm talking aboutMedicare, I'm talking about
SNAP, I'm talking aboutMedicaid.
Um there's so much fraud, waste,improper money moving around.
And it it is a huge, hugeconcern.
You know, a lot of us just tuneout and go, well, there's
nothing I can do.
Well, I think there is somethingthat you can do.
(29:26):
Um, you can talk to, you know,the people that are in charge in
your state.
And fraud gets passed to theconsumer.
It always gets when when all ofthis money is just you know
being taken, or um, we don'tknow where it goes, and they're
(29:50):
coming up with all of this fraudthat's happening, it is going
into your it is costing you.
It's costing you it's it'snothing is for free.
So if cost of goods get higherand higher because there's so
much fraud going on, and we'retalking billions, okay.
(30:11):
Um 100 billion dollars, right,has been attributed to Medicare
and Medicaid alone, right?
Um, and so all of this fraudcost us.
SPEAKER_00 (30:27):
It cost us.
The consumer always pays.
Always pays.
A company loses money,government loses money, they you
know, you get charged more fees,more taxes, more whatever.
It always gets passeddownstream.
SPEAKER_02 (30:44):
Yeah.
So I do think, I do think umthat we we have to be concerned
about it.
We we have to look, you might aswell say somebody is just
stealing from you, Dr.
Jasak.
I mean, because that is what itis.
SPEAKER_00 (31:05):
That's what that's what fraud is, right?
It's somebody typically makingmoney in a dishonest way.
And if you're making money in adishonest way, you're usually
taking it from somebody else.
Exactly.
Support your local businesses,you know, like you guys, you
know.
Um, you know, I I love here, Iwe actually our farmer's market
(31:28):
here is still going on, it'syear-round, and there people sit
out there in the cold.
Um, and and you know, becauseit's Tennessee, some people have
greenhouses and stuff, andthey'll grow produce and stuff.
So I can go there and I alwayssupport our local producers.
I pay cash, so it saves them thecredit card fees because every
little bit matters.
I mean, if you think every sale,you know, what you know, two and
(31:52):
a half, three percent.
And we use credit cards becausewe're online.
I mean, that's how our clientspay us.
But you know, we we youcompanies, businesses pay a lot
in credit card fees, and that'sthat can be a big chunk on a
real small business.
Um, big that could be a bigchunk of their income that's I
mean big expense for them everymonth.
So, you know, take care of yourlocal, don't support the
(32:14):
corporations.
Vote, vote with your dollar.
You know, I listen to JoelSoliton a lot, the regenerative
farmer, and he says, you know,if you want to hurt a company
like Tyson, these big chickenmanufacturers, he said, you
start buying from your localproducers.
He's like, we don't need moregovernment intervention or
(32:37):
anything, and that isn't gonnawork anyway, because these big
companies in the government are,I think, are all in bed together
anyway.
They're buying the thesecompanies come in and lobby and
they get the laws passed thatthey want, but vote with your
dollar, buy from your localfarmer, support the small vet.
Maybe you got to drive a littlefurther, maybe you got to drive
(32:58):
45 minutes to go to a local vetthat's not corporately owned.
Go see them because they'recompeting with these big
companies, and that's hard onthe small companies, just like
you know, you guys, Dee Dee.
You know, you want to supportthe companies that are trying to
stay independent and are notgonna sell out to these big
companies.
(33:19):
So I think voting with yourdollar can make a real big
difference.
SPEAKER_02 (33:22):
Absolutely.
And you know, I was looking atwhere they were saying that some
studies estimate that areas withthese high snap fraud incidents,
those areas are going to seehigher grocery prices.
And they said, particularly inthe fresh produce or meat.
(33:43):
Now that's real food, right?
You got the SNAP programs thatthey're paying for, that they,
you know, maybe not the bestfood on that program, then they
need to change that.
But you're gonna see highergrocery prices in the real fresh
produce or meat area.
And the other thing about fraudis that when fraud is committed,
(34:10):
Dr.
J Sig, fighting fraud, fightingfraud is something that we don't
think about, adds significantoverhead.
So you talk about you've now gota monitor, you've got to audit,
you've got enforcement, you'vegot technology upgrades.
So it's not a small thing.
It is a huge thing when we hearabout fraud, and it is something
(34:36):
that is coming out of yourpocketbook, and it's going to
cause all of us in in the world,you know, higher prices.
So we need to really do what wecan to say, hey, I'm not okay
with with people stealing fromme.
I'm not okay.
And that doesn't make you a badperson.
(34:58):
You know, that's sort of like Ihave heard this before.
Um, it's not my view, but I haveheard it.
Hey, somebody came in and stolefrom me.
Well, that's okay because theymust have needed it.
Right.
I've heard that one.
Yeah, well, I'm not okay withthat.
You know, um I I just am notokay.
(35:21):
I it's sort of like this.
I had a neighbor who every timetheir yard man came, they would
blow the leaves and it wouldcome over, just tons of leaves,
come over and go into my back umarea after I've already raked up
all my leaves.
(35:42):
And so I said, Hey, can you getyour yard guys to um not uh blow
the leaves from your yard intomy yard?
And she said, Well, I've neverhad anyone complain before.
I said, Okay, but I'mcomplaining now.
I'm complaining now, and and herresponse to me was this Well,
(36:05):
what am I supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00 (36:08):
I said, Teach your guys to blow it differently or
rake it, or you can have themcome over and clean up the the
leaves that are which shouldjust be common sense from a yard
company that you don't blow itinto somebody else's yard,
you're cleaning up somebody'syard and you just blow it into
somebody, they should be likevacuuming them up.
If the houses, you know, arekind of close together, they
(36:29):
should just be sucking them up,you know, in a vacuum.
SPEAKER_02 (36:32):
Like, does that make any sense?
Because nobody's ever complainedbefore, and because you don't
know what else to do, that'd belike me going and dumping my
trash next door and saying, Hey,nobody's ever complained about
me doing it before.
That should be all right then,right?
SPEAKER_00 (36:50):
I mean, let Lasi go over there and poop in their
yard or something, like nobody'scomplained before.
SPEAKER_02 (36:57):
But this is kind of the the we have been programmed
to not complain because it mightupset somebody.
And I'm like, well, it'supsetting me that your stuff is
coming into my yard, and itupsets me that these fraud
programs are costing me moremoney to eat well, to take care
(37:20):
of myself, and then take care ofmy dog, and then I've got to go
into the private equity firmsthat are going to upsell me and
have a package, and their onlyagenda is to make money.
Yeah, that upsets me.
SPEAKER_00 (37:34):
Yeah, stealing stealing's never okay.
Oh, come on, Dr.
J-Z.
Stealing's, yeah, never okay.
And you know what?
If somebody came up to you andsaid, Didi, you know, I'm having
kind of a rough month, could youhelp me out a little bit?
I bet you would in a heartbeatbecause they asked.
But if they sneak into yourhouse and steal from you, it's
different.
(37:54):
It's it's you know, this is notlike you're unwilling to help
people, it's let's, you know, doit in an honest way.
SPEAKER_02 (38:04):
Right.
I actually had a customer onetime, um, actually, this was
just a year ago, um take$600worth of food when they had only
ordered$200 worth of food.
So the the packages had gottenmixed up.
Now they didn't bother to calland say, hey, I've got the wrong
(38:26):
uh order, even had anothercustomer's name on it.
But here was their response whenwe asked for the incorrect order
to be written.
They said, You have the worstcustomer service ever.
And I said, Well, because we'reasking you not to steal from us,
(38:50):
and that was just I was theworst.
They would never buy from meagain because I asked them to
not steal from me.
And I said, Dr.
JC, the person who paid for that$600 order would like to have
that.
They would like to because theystole from them too, because
(39:12):
they stole their food.
Right.
But you want to keep the foodthat you took from another
customer, and then I'm supposedto absorb all of those costs,
right?
It's the same thing.
What happens to a company ifpeople steal and steal and steal
from you?
If you're gonna stay inbusiness, you're gonna pass
those prices on to consumers.
So stealing is never a goodthing.
(39:34):
Right on any level.
Never a good thing.
Never a good thing.
Just don't do it.
Right, right.
So I I I think that, you know,if if we just open up our
vision, open up our peripheralvision, look outside of the box
that we find ourselves in a lotof the times, and realize that
(39:55):
we've been our boxes keepgetting smaller and we keep.
Getting programmed to believethat we don't have the rights
that we have.
We have the rights to protectour pets, to push back on um
programs that are processes thatwe don't want our pets to have.
(40:18):
And if they will not do it, wehave to find someone else.
SPEAKER_00 (40:22):
Those vets are working for you.
You're paying them.
They're like your employee.
People get intimidated by thewhite coat and all that.
You're paying them.
They're like your employee.
They're working for you.
They don't have control overyou.
They want you to believe that,but they don't have any control.
(40:43):
Your pet's health is 100% inyour hands.
And that includes things likegiving it a rabies shot.
You don't want to do that?
That should absolutely be yourchoice.
That's between you and the law.
Vets have should have nothing tosay about that.
And so you people just need toconfront vets.
And the clients I have that havestronger personalities that have
(41:04):
gone in, you don't have to bemean or confrontational because
you don't want to burn bridges.
If you got a vet you'd like towork with, just say, look, this
is how I roll.
I may be like when this is how Iroll.
I don't vaccinate and I feed rawand yada yada yada.
And will you work with me?
I'd like to give you mybusiness.
They say no, then they're outthe door.
They say, yeah, sure.
(41:25):
Then they, you know, they thenand people will laugh about it.
They're like, yeah, we get thelittle star on our chart that
we're the kookie person, youknow.
But who cares?
Who cares what they think aboutyou?
You're in it for your pet.
Who cares if they don't likeyou?
Who cares if they talk about youat their next staff meeting
because you're one of the crazypeople that doesn't want to
vaccinate and feeds raw?
Who cares?
(41:45):
You're in it for your pet.
And if you can find a vet thatwill work with you, because
sometimes you're just going toneed those services that won't
push all these things, you know,you've got to stand up.
You're you're doing it, you'redoing it for your pet.
So you got to get out of yourcomfort zone and just do it.
SPEAKER_02 (42:02):
Just do it.
Yeah, it's a different mindsetwhen you are coming in and
you're going to a vet knowingthat it's a it's a private
equity or a corporately ownedclinic.
You have a different mindset.
You are going to be able to spotthe upsell.
You're going to be able toquestion better, right?
(42:25):
You're ready and you're equippedto question if you know what the
protocol typically is.
And then you don't feel likeyou're the bad, you know, cookie
pet parent because you'rewanting proof or you're not
wanting to do this.
Okay.
So it's a totally differentmindset.
And again, I would encourage youto work with Dr.
(42:47):
JC Scroop.
You can go over to ahvet.com.
Okay.
Ah vet.com.
They can consult with you on thequestions.
Maybe they can look at theclinic.
There's a lot of things thatthey'll be able to help you do.
Um, if you are confused.
Okay.
So you want to get over thereand work with Dr.
(43:08):
JC's group.
If you need help getting yourdog on a species appropriate raw
diet, or your cat or yourferret, okay, we can help you
here at Raw Dog Food andCompany.
SPEAKER_00 (43:19):
Or your mountain lion or your bear or whatever.
Whatever is uh your yourcarnivore carnivore, your
carnivore of choice.
SPEAKER_02 (43:28):
That's right.
Your carnivore of choice, okay?
Just get over to rawdogfoodandcompany.com.
Brian is gonna help you.
You can go into our chat, youcan sign up for the consult.
You can send us a text, you cansend us an email.
We will help you and we will getback with you.
Uh your pet's health is ourbusiness here at Raw Dog Food
and Company.
(43:49):
Uh, and I said that backwards.
Let's see.
Where your pet's health is ourbusiness.
See, I have to say it insequence.
It's like a song.
Because it's automatic.
Yeah.
And if you say it in the wrongorder, then you goof me up and I
miss my cue.
There's another part.
All right.
Uh, get over to rawdogfoodandcompany.com where your
pet's health is our business.
And what, Dr.
(44:10):
Jason?
Friends don't let friends feedkibble, y'all.
That's right.
We'll see you guys soon,everybody.
Bye bye.
Bye.
SPEAKER_01 (44:16):
Oh, snap, snap, snap.
Find out how you can start yourdog on the road to health and
longevity.
Go to raw dogfoodandcompany.com,where friends don't let friends
feed kibble, and where your petshealth is our business.
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